Haunted House
by MilkshakeFanfiction
Summary: Submitted for Haunted Twilight Challenge. While the girls are out, the Cullen boys take Bella to a haunted house. Outtake from Raising Bella.


Greetings. This is our entry for the Haunted Twilight Challenge. This is an outtake from raising Bella, so for those who aren't reading that fic-Bella is three at the time of this fic and the Cullens have adopted her. This particular fic will be her first Halloween spent with the Cullens. We decided to not cram every holiday in Bella's first year and, so, decided to have the Halloween chapter for Raising Bella later on, when she's old enough to trick-or-treat for a while instead of jsut half an hour. This will take place after the chapter "Acceptance". (Which should be up by Monday night.)

Also, please check out other Challenge Entries at : http://www (dot) fanfiction (dot) net/community/Haunted_Twilight_Challenge/74526/

Enjoy. :)

* * *

Emmett rapidly flipped through the channels, desperately trying to find something interesting to watch.

"Boring."--flip--"Stupid."--flip--"Seen it."--flip--"Seen it."--flip--"Ahh, here we go."  
"Emmett?" Edward asked, feigning patience.

"Yes?"  
"You can't stop here."

"Why not?"

"Because it's rated R."

"So?"

"For nudity and violence."

"Why do you think I stopped?"  
"We have a three-year-old with us." He nodded toward the child sitting on his lap, playing with her stuffed rabbit and teddy bear. Sensing an acknowledgment of her, she glanced up and smiled before returning to playing.

"I'm still failing to see your point."

As he finished this sentence the movie cut to two people making out who quickly began removing each others' clothes. Edward immediately moved his hands to cover Bella eyes.

"Emmett! Change it! Now!"

"Fine," he sighed exasperatedly, managing to change it before things got too raunchy.

"Edward! Can't see!" Bella squealed, squirming around and he removed his hands, smiling at her adoringly.

"You're so whipped," Emmett muttered.

"Says the boy who shut off one of his favorite movies because of the possible effects on a three-year-old," Carlisle teased.

"No, I changed it because Edward was yelling at me."

"Keep telling yourself that," Jasper snickered.

Emmett glared at Jasper and, Edward quickly covered Bella's eyes so Emmett could properly flip his Southern brother off. Jasper looked like he wanted to retaliate, so Carlisle quickly intervened.

"Gentlemen, the ladies have gone out for a shopping adventure. We have the whole night to spend with Bella. Do you wish to really stay here and watch TV?"

"Only if Bella wants to, right Edward?" Emmett asked, innocently.

Edward shot him a look.

"There's really nothing to take a three year old to at eight o' clock in the evening, Carlisle," Jasper pointed out.

"No."

Carlisle and Jasper turned to Edward, who was glaring at his favorite brother. Emmett's eyes were alive with the joy of realizing a good, but stupid, idea.

"Aw, come on, Edward it would fun. And, Bella needs some human experiences."

"No."

"You're such a party-pooper! Let the kid have some fun."

"Would you mind filling us in?" Jasper asked.

"Emmett," Edward began through clenched teeth, "Wants to take Bella to a Haunted House."

To Edward's dismay, Jasper turned an interested eye toward Emmett. "Not a bad idea."

"Absolutely not! She is a child and I will not allow you to take her somewhere that will surely terrorize her."

"But it's Halloween! We have to do _something _Halloweeny." Edward remained unconvinced and Emmett sighed. "Let's have Bella decide. Shrimp." Bella turned to Emmett, "Do you wanna go somewhere special with us?" Her eyes lit up at the word "special" and she nodded vigorously. Edward grumbled. "Sure, ask her like that and she'll be dying to come."

"Edward, it's just a small local haunted house, we're not taking her to one of the huge, four story ones or anything. I'm sure it won't be too bad and if Bella gets too scared, we will leave immediately," Carlisle said, finally getting into the conversation.

"Yeah. We'll run through the walls if we have to," Emmett said, wearing a cheeky grin.

The final straw that broke Edward's back was Bella, turning her doe brown eyes on him, her lower lip protruding in a pout. She didn't even have to say anything this time before he caved.

"Fine. Let's go."

* * *

They stood in line behind a small group of ten-year-olds, who were currently wining at the parent that brought them that they were old enough to go in by themselves. Edward was looking around them at all the decorations set up. They were standing outside someone's house, whose yard had been decorated with multiple tombstones, frightening dummies, and other scary relics. He leaned a little closer to the fence and read one of the tombstones. "Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake; Stepped on the gas instead of the brake." That's not funny…Was that supposed to be funny? What is wrong with these people?

"I really don't think we should be taking Bella in there."

"Edward, get over it," Emmett said exasperatedly, "She will be _fine_."  
As he said this, Edward noticed Bella wondering over to one of the fake skeletons near the ticket table. Before Edward could react, she walked close enough to set off the motion sensor. Its eyes lit up red and its upper body moved around while emitting a chilling wail. Bella let out a slight shriek and ran to hide behind Edward. He picked her up and glared at Emmett.

"This place is _way_ too scary for her."

"Maybe Edward's right," Carlisle said pensively, "Maybe it is too scary for a three-year-old."

"Oh, come on!" Emmett argued, "We are already right here!"

"It's just this small set up in the front of some people's house," Jasper agreed, "I'm sure it won't be that bad and we'll be through it in five minutes-ten tops."

"Five minutes that could end up traumatizing her for life!"  
"All right!" Carlisle intervened, "How about this, we'll take her through and if she gets too scared, then we'll double back and leave. Can we do that?" he asked the ticket lady. She nodded.

"Workers are instructed to not scare people heading back out through the entrance, as they are obviously too scared to continue," she said helpfully and Carlisle turned back to Edward for affirmation of the new plan.

"Fine," he said grudgingly, "But if she ends up getting nightmares from this, I'm ripping your limbs off, Emmett."

The first "room" they walked into was an area outside, behind the initial fence so you couldn't see it when you were outside of the haunted house. It was a continuation of the graveyard, only with creepier props placed in it, as well as people dressed up as zombies "eating" body parts and dragging themselves across the ground. Bella gripped Edward's hand with both hands tightly and he glared at Emmett.

"Don't worry, Bella," Emmett reassured, "They only like blonds."

This seemed to comfort her a bit and got her to start moving so they could walk through. She seemed a little unnerved by the moaning and crunching noises they kept making, but seemed determined to not show it. As they got farther into the graveyard, the ground began to get foggier from a fog machine until, eventually, the entire ground was covered in fog that extended past Bella's head. She let go of Edward's hand and began waving her arms slightly in front of herself.

"Go away!" she shouted, and she waved her arms harder. They all glanced down and even Edward had to work hard to hold in the laughter as she frantically flailed her arms around. Edward leaned down in front of her and grasped her arms gently before she knocked something over. She let out a slight shriek and started struggling harder.

"Bella! Calm down, it's me." She stopped and stared at him as if she couldn't see him.

"Edward?"

"Yes. What are you doing?"

"Can't see! Make it go away!"

"Edward, she probably can't see through the fog," Carlisle explained, managing to hold his laughter back as Emmett and Jasper were finally pushed over the edge. Edward shot the two another glare and picked her up. She blinked rapidly and rubbed at her eyes.

"Better?" Edward asked. She nodded and they headed out of the room.

They entered the actual house part into a room filled with coffins--some leaning against the walls, others just placed on pedestals. Some were opened, giving a clear view of the dead that were inside, some were opened only slightly with an arm or a leg hanging out that would twitch every once in a while, and others were close completely. There were cobwebs strung up with spiders in them and bats hanging from the ceiling, flapping their wings slightly.

"I want wawk!" Bella announced, squirming as she often did whenever Edward carried her for longer than several feet. He set her down and she ran over to one of the coffins, reaching up to touch it. Edward hurried after her.

"Bella, don't touch that."

"Why?" She looked up at him sadly.

"Because it's not yours and it's rude to touch things that aren't yours."

"Fine…" She turned to walk away when the coffin popped open and a skeleton jumped up with a scream. This, in turn, made Bella scream and Edward shoved at the skeleton to make it go away, breaking it in half in the process.

"Nice one, Edward," Jasper said as he and Emmett snickered.

"I'll pay the lady for it when we leave."

He had just grabbed her hand and turned to leave when one of the coffins leaning against the wall opened and a man dressed as a vampire came out. A little boy had been standing with his back to it and, so, didn't notice the vampire who was now following him through the room.

"Wook out!" Bella shouted in warning pointing at the vampire and the boy turned around, screamed, and ran to his mother. This, then, turned the attention off the boy and on to her, so she quickly hid behind the Cullen boys.

"Don't even try it," Jasper said, annoyed at the stereotypically ridiculous portrayal of vampires the man was attempting. The man shrugged nonchalantly and climbed back into his coffin.

"Honestly," Emmett whispered, "What is it with some humans? That was completely ridiculous. Why the hell would a vampire dress like he came out of the 1600's if he lived in the twentieth century? That would definitely not help him fit in."

"I know," Jasper agreed, "And if they're going to put on fangs, couldn't they at least spring for the enamel kind-at least those don't look ridiculously stupid like those plastic ones."

The next room was set up to look like a room for surgery. The room was practically pitch black with strobe lights going off, blood splattered on the walls, and body parts randomly strewn around. There were several gurneys with dead bodies lying on them-one that was mostly covered with a sheet appeared to be an alien. There was an operating table against the wall to the left that had a person laying on it screaming as a "doctor" cut open her stomach and pulled her intestines out. There was also a nurse who was sawing one of her legs off.

Bella's eyes got huge and before Edward could stop her she ran over to the doctor and kicked him in the leg.

"Stop it!" she started shouting and Edward ran over and grabbed her, pulling her back as Carlisle apologized and Emmett and Jasper broke down into a fit of laughter again.

"We definitely need to take Shrimp to haunted houses more often," Emmett said as they left the room.

"Yes, people getting harmed bodily and props getting broken. We definitely should do this more often," Carlisle said jokingly.

They entered a long hallway filled with holographic pictures that changed from normal people to hideous demons and creatures, portraits where the eyes seemed to follow you, and two-way mirrors that would light up as you past, revealing frightening faces. It wasn't as scary for Bella as it might have been, since all the portraits were above her head. All she could see was the spider wallpaper they had put up and she soon began to look bored. It was Edward's favorite room in the whole place.

Until a stuffed spider suddenly dropped from the ceiling right in front of Bella. She let out a shriek and grabbed the thing, yanking it off the string and dropping it to the ground where she began stomping on it. Edward grabbed her and held her up in the air, her feet still kicking as she tried to make contact with the toy.

"Bella! You got it!" Edward exclaimed, trying to get her to stop.

"Yeah, good job, Shrimp!" Emmett congratulated, offering her a hi-five as they walked into the next room

This room was lighter than the other ones had been. Edward was pleased to see this in contrast to the dark and dreary layout of the rest of the house. They had finally caught up to the groups that had been ahead of them: the small boy from the coffin room and his mother, a young teenage couple, and the group of boys who had insisted on entering alone.

Edward's eyes swept around the room out of reflex. The room was set up to look like a circus from hell. There were all these colorful lights strung around, casting shadows into certain areas and making the room look creepier than it normally would've. A ringmaster dressed in spooky attire stood off to the side, gesturing toward the various "acts" of the room, which included a headless man showing off his ability to stick his head (Or, rather, the area where his head would have been.) inside a lion's mouth, a man juggling screaming heads, a woman contorting herself through boxes with knives shoved into them, demonic clowns, statues, and various cages filled with monstrous animals.

As he scanned the room, his eyes landed on a motionless figure who stood amongst the statues a few steps away from them. He was dressed up to resemble the demonic clowns that were stalking around the room. Edward tilted his head, surveying the figure carefully. He was almost certain there was a heartbeat coming from it, and a smell. But, it wasn't moving. Not even a twitch or a blink. Thinking he may have just caught someone else's scent, he let Bella walk forward.

Just as she approached the figure, it suddenly jumped out at her and growled menacingly. And this little girl, who had handled zombies in a graveyard, evil doctors cutting people open, spiders dropping from the ceiling, and figured popping up from coffins with barely a scream took one look at the man and instantaneously began to cry.

The room froze. The teenage girl and the mother looked toward the man with identical looks of loathing while Edward, completely forgetting everything except for the sheer fact that Bella was crying, let his arm fall back and his fist connect with the man's face. Not hard enough to go straight through the man's skull and kill him, but just hard enough to cause him some intense pain--possibly a broken nose. While the women gave light applause with utterances of "Serves him right. Scaring a tiny child like that.", the man fell to his knees, gripping his face.

"Dude!" he shouted, "It's part of the haunted house!" The ringmaster stopped his spiel as he and the other people in the room ran over to the scene.

"Tell that to her," Edward practically snarled, as he scooped up Bella.

The man hurriedly ran toward the exit, with the ringmaster on his heels just as the clowns and other figures approached them. The sight of the other clowns made Bella shriek even louder and they backed off immediately. Edward remained oblivious to all of this, concentrating only on getting Bella to stop crying. He bounced her lightly and whispered calming words into her ear, stroking her hair softly.

"Will she be okay?" the mother asked, taking a few steps toward them.

Edward gave a terse smile. "I hope so."

The teenager girl, who had been holding a pillow case filled with candy, offered it weakly. "I was going to bash him with this, but I see you've got it under control. Does she eat sweets? Maybe it will cheer her up."

Edward's smile was more polite now. "No, I'm sure she'll be fine. Thank you."

All the while this was happening, the group of boys in the corner were quietly sniggering. Figuring they were making jokes about the obviously lame decorations and pathetic scares, Emmett ignored them.

"-little cry baby-"

Until that. Both his, and Jasper's heads whipped toward them. They were making faces and pretending to cry. And, it was obvious whom they were referring to. The two shared a look, then glanced at their father figure, who was wearing a slight frown. Carlisle sighed.

"I'm going to check very closely on Bella to make sure she's all right. I'll be checking so closely, that I won't be able to notice anything else in the room. Except Bella."

He did just as he said he would while Emmett and Jasper walked toward the boys as they laughed raucously.

"Is there a problem?" Jasper asked.

One boy grinned cruelly. "That girl is such a baby. The decorations are fake!"

"Yeah! And the costumes are so lame!" another interjected.

"Have you seen the zombies? Or the 'scary' vampire," the last one said mockingly.

"So, they want 'scary' vampires, do they?" Emmett asked in an almost deadly whisper that only Jasper could hear.

"We should let them get exactly what they paid for," Jasper responded, in the same whisper.

Emmett's arms bulged and Jasper's lip began to curl. Suddenly, they no longer looked like two like young, attractive men, but more like the monsters they actually were. Emmett took a menacing step toward them, while Jasper let out a warning growl.

The boys shrieked and ran toward the nearest exit. Emmett and Jasper exchanged high-fives, then walked back over to Edward, who held a now calm Bella. Who happened to have chocolate all over her face and a smile a mile wide.

"Candy!" she exclaimed.

Jasper chuckled. "She's feeling better."

"Much," Edward agreed, "That girl wouldn't rest until she gave Bella a Hershey's bar. Apparently, it did the trick."

"So, she's good now?" Emmett asked, sticking his tongue out at Bella, who happily reciprocated the gesture.

"Yeah. Let's go through the rest of the house now, shall we?" Edward asked.

They set off toward the next room, which was pitch black with more a single strobe light going off. They could see the exit and started heading toward it when a loud roaring sound came from behind them. A man approached out of the shadows, holding a chainsaw, revving it and holding it above his head in a threatening manner. The teenage girl grabbed her boyfriend's hand and ran out the exit, screaming in her head about how much _Texas Chainsaw Massacre _had terrified her.

"Are you insane?!" Edward practically screamed at the man, "You have a chainsaw? Here?! With children around?! What's wrong with you?! You people should all be institutionalized!" He picked Bella up to stop her from getting too close to the man and he took his mask off.

"It doesn't have a chain on it!" he exclaimed angrily, "It's perfectly safe, it's just supposed to be scary!"

At that moment two people approached them from a back doorway--the woman was selling tickets and another man.

"Excuse me," the man said, "I understand you people have been wreaking havoc upon our haunted house."

"_We've _been wreaking havoc?" Edward repeated.

"Yeah," Emmett agreed, "It was all the Shrimp." He pointed at Bella, who waved at the people.

"Was it the child who destroyed our $300 skeleton?" the woman asked.

"Seriously? That flimsy thing cost you guys $300?" Jasper asked, "Edward was able to snap that thing in two just by shoving it a little."

The couple turned to look at Edward.

"I was going to pay for it!"

"What about the spider?"

"Ok, now, that one really _was _Bella, but I'll pay for that too."

"What about the boys whose parent we had complain about your group terrorizing them?"

"This is a haunted house," Jasper said, "I thought they were supposed to get scared, and what makes you think it was us?"

"Yeah, in a haunted house, one would assume they were getting scared at the attractions inside," Emmett backed him up.

"And the workers you injured?"  
"I only injured one and he had it coming!" Edward argued angrily.

"He was doing his job."

"His job is to terrify a toddler?" Carlisle interjected, "I understand it's his job to scare people, but he should be able to distinguish between someone who can handle intense scares and someone who can't."

"What about our doctor?"

"That was not a doctor, that's an actor. And are you implying that a three-year-old managed to cause lasting damage to an adult?"

They stared at the group in silence after that. In the end, the Cullens agreed to pay for the damage to the props that had occurred, but ended up not in any serious trouble involving police or anything. The people had asked, however, that they never return to their haunted house again--_ever_.

"Well, that was fun," Emmett said as they headed home.  
"Fun?" Edward asked, "That was a nightmare! Bella's probably not going to be able to sleep for weeks!"  
"I'm sure she loved it," Jasper disagreed, "Ok, so the clown guy went a little overboard on her, but she seemed to enjoy everything else."  
"I'm going to have to agree with Edward, though," Carlisle said, "We're going to have to wait for when Bella's older before we take her to another haunted house. At the very least so we don't end up banned from every haunted house in New York."

"Older, like four?" Jasper asked and Emmett hi-fived him. Edward scoffed at them and rolled his eyes.

"Hey, we never actually asked Shrimp what she thinks about it." Emmett turned to Bella. "So, how about it? What did you think."  
She stared at Emmett then looked at each other person in turn before glancing back at the haunted house they had just left.

"We go again?" she finally asked.

"You know, I think there's another one about five blocks from here," Emmett said before snatching Bella out of Edward's arms and taking off running down the street, Jasper right behind him, laughing.

"Emmett! Get back here!" Edward exclaimed in anger as he chased after them. Carlisle just chuckled and shook his head, before following.


End file.
